Disenfranchisement

Basics

Limiting the franchise has been a key to the maintenance of minority rule in the US since the founding of the Republic. For a nearly a century most Black people were denied the vote; for a century and a half women were denied; for nearly two centuries young men & women of military age (18-21) were denied. In most states immigrants who are employed, pay taxes & have children in the schools, as well as persons of any origin who have ever been convicted of a felony are still denied. In addition, our system erects many barriers to voter registration, rather than doing everything it can to encourage people to vote. (For example, ask yourself why election day is a Tuesday rather than a Sunday, or why it is not a national holiday). All of this has combined to prevent the establishment of the right and responsibility of voting as a fundamental feature of life in every American community. This even before the erosion of public confidence in government and in the electoral process that has resulted from the high cost of campaigning, systematic disinformation and, since the 2000 election, a growing public awareness that many votes cast are never counted, combined with distrust of the electronic voting machine. Ours is a system that is by no means the model for the world we are taught to believe that it is. It is a system in desperate need of reform.